Chapter 10: Slingshot

It was around the end of October. The Albahelons were flying towards the north. The origin of Allen’s name. 

(The harvests should end soon. Then we will completely enter the hunting season.)

Rodan seems to be in a good mood these days. It’s due to the hunting season. When October comes around, the men of the village adjust their schedule to go hunting together. They have already gone hunting twice this year in between potato harvests. Rodan is 180 cm tall and has a big build. Since Rodan had wanted to become a hunter, he always looks forward to the hunting season. Theresia needs nutrition to give birth to a healthy child. 

Thanks to it, Allen and Kurena were also growing up quickly. Everyone who participated in the hunt gets rewarded with blocks of meat if the hunt is successful. For serfs who usually get their protein from beans, getting protein from animals was very precious. They succeed about 10 times during the two months from October to December so maybe they are quite skilled. 

Moreover, from January to March, it seems they go out to hunt an elk-like C rank creature called the white deer. Since the lands are covered with snow during that time and the animal itself is white, it is difficult to spot and is harder to catch than a great boar in Autumn. 

(Hmm, now then, let’s see the inspection results.)

He checked the H rank locust which he put in the hole the G rank mole dug. 

“Oh! Denka! You’re alive. With this, I think it’s safe to say that keeping the monster summoned for a whole day is not a problem.”

It was a test to check how long his summons last outside the card.

As there are no walkthrough sites and he can’t even post questions to the developers, the only way he can make sure of something is by trial and error. Now that he can get out to the front yard as he pleases, he could test all these things. 

Also, Denka was the nickname for the H rank insect. 

There’s a function which allows him to name the summoned beasts and makes it possible for him to create, summon and synthesize by thinking of the nickname instead of ‘H rank insect’, etc. He doesn’t even need to call it out. Just thinking does the job. 

A glance at the summoned beasts names:

Clearly names you would give to your pets rather than your summonable beasts. It’s possible to change it as many times as needed — simply by changing the name in the name column in the grimoire. 

(Now then, next is…)

Allen left H rank insect as is and went underneath a tree in the garden. There were about 10 pebbles lying around his feet. Allen put them there. He suddenly picked them up and started throwing them towards the tree, one by one. While throwing, he thought back to 3 years ago, when he first came to this world. 

(If I recall right, only the skills chosen from the occupation can be acquired during the early days. I am a summoner. This doesn’t mean that I can’t acquire other skills, does it?)

After throwing the pebbles, he picked them up again, made count on the ground and started throwing again. 

(100, for now. I need to throw about 100 times per day and find out something like the law behind acquiring skills.)

By throwing stones like this, Allen tried to see if he could acquire a slingshot-like skill. 

He wanted to know if it was possible to acquire skills unrelated to summoning and about the conditions behind acquiring a skill, as fast as possible. He reincarnated into a new world from and is starting from age 0 so it wouldn’t hurt to know things like these early on. 

For now, he’s earning experience points with the synthesize skill but his mana lasts for only about 3 times a day. In this world, for Allen, who wants to speedrun through games, this is just too unsatisfactory. 

Far off in the distance, a bell rang to inform the villagers that it was noon. 

“Allen~ It’s time for lunch~”

“Yes, mama.”

It seems the soft potatoes for lunch are ready. He returned to the house. It was still forenoon. Allen decided to make it his routine to throw stones all morning. 

“Let’s play again tomorrow, alright~?! Allen!”

“Yeah.”

4 hours had passed. Allen was lying down in the front yard, completely exhausted after playing make-believe. Kurena went running home after Theresia suggested it. As there’s little light in the village, it gets dark real quick, especially in the village outskirts. It would be quite risky going home in complete darkness so she doesn’t really ask Kurena to stay for dinner. 

(Done for today as well. If Kurena comes by everyday, I feel like I will end up learning swordsmanship first.)

He was on the defending side today as well. If they were to do this everyday, he thought it would be nice to get some sword related skill.

And today as well, the family of 3 sat down for dinner on the sunken earth. Although the quality is low for serfs, it’s not as if the quantity is also low. Even if we’re considering only Rodan, he’s 180 centimeters tall and has a good build and works from 6 in the morning till 4 PM. The calories he consumes each day exceeds that of the normal modern person. 

As he needs to intake that kind of calories when they don’t even have seasoning or meat, the quantity of the food must be high. They had potatoes, bread made from refined wheat and beans lined up. Along with that, they also had soup with dry vegetables picked during summer. 

“That reminds me, I saw you throwing stones at the tree today.”

“Yup.”

As expected, his mother was concerned as her son was doing some incomprehensible things. 

Rodan also reacted. Theresia told Rodan about how Allen was just silently throwing stones at the tree. 

“Why were you doing that?”

“Hmm, papa said that monsters appear outside. I will defeat them with stones and protect mama!”

He explained the reason he had thought up, with a smile like a child. Theresia and Rodan had told him that monsters appear outside the house and so he mustn’t go out alone. 

This village is covered with fences and even outside the fences, only low level monsters appear. However, even those low level monsters come in from the gap between the walls sometimes. They are exterminated as soon as they are found but they would still be dangerous to a child. 

(Horned rabbits appear, was it? That certainly was delicious.)

He could remember 2 times Rodan had caught one of those and they had it for dinner. The horned rabbit was about as big as a medium-sized dog. As there’s an unwritten rule that the person who catches it gets to have it, they try to exterminate these monsters themselves once they spot one. 

“Aww, Allen.”

Although they were still eating, Theresia hugged Allen tight, being moved by his answer. 

“Ohh, I see, I see!”

Seems Rodan was also happy to see his son growing up to be brave. It was close to a perfect answer for a child. Rodan patted his head as Theresia hugged him tight. 

“You’ll protect Kurena-chan too, won’t you?”

“Yup!”

Rodan had already heard from Gelda that Kurena was strong enough to not be defeated by a horned rabbit. As such, it was decided that she will be the one coming to Allen’s house.

“Ah, right, since you guys are also enjoying the knight make-belief games, there’s the Judgement Ceremony when you turn 5 too. It would be nice if you have some ‘talent’!”

“Right.”

(Oh? What’s this? That’s the first time I’ve heard of such a thing.)

“Judgement Ceremony?”

“Everyone gets appraised by God once they turn 5 years old, to see if they have a ‘talent’.”

Theresia explained. He got to know that in this world, there’s a ceremony for every human being, to check if they have a talent. He felt that his parents themselves were hoping for him to have some kind of a talent, even though they were telling him not to expect much as there are a lot of people who don’t have any ‘talent’. It seems having a ‘talent’ is one of the few ways a serf can escape this lifestyle. 

Throwing stones in the morning, playing knight make-believe in the afternoon, inspecting the summoning skills during free time, acquiring skill exp points periodically by consuming mana and helping Theresia around the house — that’s how Allen’s days went by.